Knowledge sources and impacts on subsequent inventions: Do green technologies differ from non-green ones?

Nicolò Barbieri (), Alberto Marzucchi and Ugo Rizzo

SPRU Working Paper Series from SPRU - Science Policy Research Unit, University of Sussex Business School

Abstract: The paper contributes to our understanding of the nature and impact of green technological change. We focus on the search and impact spaces of green inventions, scrutinising the knowledge recombination processes leading to the generation of the invention and the impact of the invention on subsequent technological developments. Using a large sample of patents filed during 1980-2012, we analyse a set of established patent indicators that capture different aspects of the invention process. Technological heterogeneity is controlled for by comparing green and non-green technologies within similar narrow technological domains. Green technologies are found to be more complex and radical than non-green ones and to have a larger and more pervasive impact on subsequent inventions. However, the results show a variety of distinctive patterns with respect to the knowledge dimension considered. We derive some important policy implications.

Keywords: environmental inventions; patent data; knowledge recombination; knowledge impact (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O33 O34 Q55 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2018-04
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-env, nep-ino, nep-ipr, nep-knm, nep-sbm and nep-tid
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (8)

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Related works:
Journal Article: Knowledge sources and impacts on subsequent inventions: Do green technologies differ from non-green ones? (2020)
Working Paper: Knowledge sources and impacts on subsequent inventions: Do green technologies differ from non-green ones? (2019)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:sru:ssewps:2018-11

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